Alpo Suhonen, who became the first-ever European head coach in the NHL when he was appointed to the Chicago Blackhawks last May, will have to step down from his position and will probably end his coaching career because of a heart complaint.

   

Suhonen would have had a contract with the Blackhawks for next season as well. On Monday the 52-year-old, who had been undergoing tests for some weeks, received the results of an angiogram that showed blockages in one of his arteries. The condition probably will not require surgery, and is not immediately life-threatening, but Suhonen decided after negotiations with the doctors and the Chicago Blackhawks' general manager Mike Smith that the best course would be to bow out gracefully.

   

Assistant coaches Denis Savard and Al MacAdam will share coaching duties between them for the final seven games of the NHL season. The Chicago Blackhawks will not make the play-offs this season, for the fourth year in a row.

"The most important thing

here is that I'm not in any immediate danger", said Suhonen from his home in Chicago. "Some of the blockages are minor, but one is as much as 50% closed". Suhonen is naturally disappointed, but can see the positive aspects of giving up his career; if he had continued as a coach, the life-style might have brought something a good deal more serious or even fatal.

   

Suhonen said he was completely stunned by the news that he had an arterial blockage. Problems had been diagnosed initially around three weeks ago, when Suhonen went in for cholesterol measurements. The tests led to his being scheduled for an angiogram, and the results came at the beginning of the week.

Suhonen will be staying in Chicago

for the next few weeks, where he will be selling his house and seeing to the details of the move back to Finland.

   

He hopes to be able to move back here in a month or so, and by that time he should be getting himself used to a more healthy diet and less smoking. It is unlikely that the condition will require by-pass surgery, but this has not been ruled out.

   

Alpo Suhonen's apppointment last year was given some prominence in hockey circles, as a first within the NHL. He had previously served as assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Winnipeg Jets, as well as handling the Finnish national side and two Finnish league teams, Hämeenlinna's HPK and Jokerit of Helsinki.

   

The Blackhawks will be trying to find a new head coach by mid-June, but Mike Smith declined to speculate on the name before the end of the season.

Suhonen's appointment to the rather windy position in the Windy City (he was the fifth head coach since 1995) was reported here last year, along with an earlier profile on the man himself. See links below.